History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 71

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 71

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

262

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

great heads of literature. Several volumes of these are already printed, which, with the Bulletins since printed, enable one in a few minutes to ascertain all that the col- lection contains relating to a topic under investigation.

In 1860 the library had twenty-two thousand six hun- dred and forty-eight volumes (sixteen thousand and sixty- five in the library proper) upon its shelves, besides the collections of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, which numbered over three thousand. The same year a second printed catalogue, of two hundred and four octavo pages, was printed. The law imposing a State tax for libraries was repealed this year, and no additions were made to the library in 1861, except eighty- one volumes, by donation. In the same way one hun- dred and fifteen were added the next year, and one hun- dred in 1863. The additions during seven years when no public tax was levied for it scarcely kept pace with the losses; and in 1866 but sixteen thousand two hun- dred books were reported-about the same as six years before-and many of these were in most wretched con- dition.

However, in 1867 a subscription of four thousand seven hundred and sixty dollars and fifteen cents was made for the library, and the income of a legacy of five thousand dollars, left to it by Mrs. Sarah Lewis, be- came available. On petition of the school and munici- pal authorities, the tax for libraries was restored March 10, 1867, in cities of the first and second class, which gave Cincinnati the next year thirteen thousand five hundred dollars for new books. Only one thousand six hundred and eighty-three dollars and forty-nine cents were, however, expended this year in this direction ; but seven thousand eighty-nine dollars and seventy-seven cents were paid out in 1863 for three thousand six hun- dred and eighty-six volumes, and three hundred and fifty-two were received by donation. Shortly before this purchase the exact number of books in the library was reported at twelve thousand four hundred and eighty- three, showing a great falling-off from losses, worn-out copies, and other causes. In 1869, five thousand three hundred and ninety-three volumes were added ; in 1870, one thousand one hundred and seventy-seven ; and seven thousand nine hundred and one were bought during the year ending June, 1871. The number of volumes was thirty thousand three hundred and six August 10th of that year. The number of readers in a single month of 1867 was two thousand one hundred and twenty; of 1868, three thousand five hundred and five; 1869, five thousand one hundred and eleven; 1870, six thousand seven hundred and seventy-three ; 1871, eleven thousand two hundred and thirty-one ; showing a very remarkable increase the last year, which was during the administra- tion of Mr. W. F. Poole, the celebrated librarian, and reformer of this library. About this time arrangements were made with medical institutions in the city to build up and maintain an extensive medical department ; and a Theological and Religious Library, numbering three thousand two hundred and ninety-one volumes, had re- cently been deposited with its collection.

The building occupied by the library is eighty feet

front on Vine street by one hundred and ninety feet depth to College street in the rear. The front is four stories high, the two lower being eighteen feet high, and the two upper sixteen feet, built of light-colored Buena- Vista freestone, of massive design, and surmounted by a cornice of galvanized iron, eighty feet from the pave- ment. The building is fire-proof throughout; the floors are on rolled wrought-iron beams, with corrugated sheet- iron arches between them, filled in with concrete. In the main hall of the library the columns which support the ceiling are wrought-iron of peculiar construction, ornamented with cast-iron. The lintels are all of wrought- iron ; and the interior cornices, etc., are of galvanized iron, with panels of ornamental glass in the iron ceiling. An arched roof spreads above this, studded with prismatic lights of thick glass set in iron plates. The inside fold- ing shutters for the windows are of wrought-iron in moulded panels. The windows are double, excluding effectually smoke and dust, with French casements hung inside of the outer sashes.

The main apartment is eighty by one hundred and eight feet, and fifty feet high, surrounded by five tiers of alcoves, the lower of them eleven feet high and the upper seven and a half feet. They have six iniles of shelving, with a total capacity for two hundred and fifty thousand volumes. The floor of this hall, the visitors' reception-room, and the entrance hall, are paved with marble in various colors. The staircases from the ground floor to the library, seven feet above, are of white marble ; other flights of stairs in the building are of iron.

On the first floor, near the entrance to the main hall, is a delivery-room for the circulating library, which im- mediately adjoins, but is separated from the large hall used in consulting the library of reference.

The interior finish, wainscoting, etc., of the building is in black walnut, with walls and ceilings decorated in color. Heat is supplied from steam coils throughout the building. An ample cellar gives lofty vaulted rooms for the reception and unpacking of books, for boiler and en- gine, coal vaults, etc. The steam engine is used partly to move the elevator in the building.

This edifice was occupied in 1873, when the Hon. Charles Jacob, mayor of the city, formally received from the board of education the keys of the fine structure, and an address was delivered by the Hon. George H. Pen- dleton.

The last annual report of the librarian, dated July I, 1880, exhibits the total number of books then in the library as one hundred and eighteen thousand nine hun- dred and fifty-five; pamphlets, thirteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-two; total, one hundred and thirty-two thousand eight hundred and seven. Added during the year, twelve thousand three hundred and sixty-five-nine thousand five hundred and fourteen by purchase, one thousand five hundred and five by gift, and ninety-eight by exchange. The Cincinnati Newsboys' union presented its entire library-three hundred and seventy-seven books and three hundred and eighty pamphlets. The issue of books was: Volumes delivered for home use, two hun-

263

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

dred and fifty-seven thousand five hundred and ninety- one; for reference, one hundred and fifty-one thousand and eighty-two; total, four hundred and eight thousand six hundred and seventy-three, an increase, as against the previous year, of thirty-three thousand six hundred and eighty-six. An average of a book every minute is given out during all the hours the library is open, and over two thousand people daily make use of the library in some shape.

Branch libraries have been established in the First ward (Columbia) and the Twenty-first ward (Cummins- ville) with very gratifying results. The expenditures of the library for the year were fifty-four thousand nine hun- dred and twenty-seven dollars and twenty-eight cents.

The librarian, Chester W. Merrill, esq., thus illustrates, in a very interesting incident, the many' ways in which the library is returning consideration to the community for this seemingly large expense :

It is seldom that we can measure in dollars and cents the usefulness of an institution whose benefits silently permeate the whole community, but occasionally an illustration presents itself. I am authorized by Judge M. W. Oliver and E. W. Kittredge, esq., to state that the in- formation derived from three volumes in the library, wnich could not have been obtained elsewhere at the time, saved the people of Cincin- nati, in the contract with the Gas Company, at least thirty-three thou- sand five hundred dollars annually for the next ten years. How much more of the reduction of the price of gas was due to these books, cannot be certainly known. There can be no doubt that seven cents per thou- sand feet reduction was due to the assistance rendered by these books. This one item is alone more than one-half the annual cost of the library, and is nearly equal to the amount paid by the board of education from the general educational fund for library purposes.

BENEFACTIONS. .

Mr. Timothy Kirby, a well-known old citizen of Cin- cinnati, left a bequest at his death of a lot on Court street and four acres on Strait and Zigzag avenue, for the benefit of the Public and Mercantile libraries. It was put in litigation, however, and its loss was seriously threatened. The decision of the court below invalidated the will in this particular, and decided the case against the city; but the bequest was subsequently allowed, at least in part, by a compromise; and in 1878 three thou- sand dollars were realized from it for the Public library and five thousand dollars for the Mercantile. The Pub- lic also about this time received five thousand three hun- dred dollars from the assets of the estate of Mrs. Sarah Lewis, under the terms of her will, yielding the library over four hundred dollars per year. June 10, 1879, Mr. Henry Probasco made it the liberal donation of one hun- dred and sixty-one standard books and fifty photographs for its walls. The British government presented it nearly four thousand volumes containing the specifications and plans of English patents, and added four hundred and thirty volumes the next year. A very remarkable gift was made by John. A. B. King, a Cincinnati newsboy, in the shape of his entire library, consisting of two thousand four hundred and sixty-six volumes and two hundred and thirty-seven pamphlets-considered a very useful collec- tion. Of this donation the Rev. Thomas Vickers, librarian, said in his report for 1878-9:

The application by Mr. King of his hard-earned savings to the pur- chase of an extensive and valuable collection of books in all depart- ments of literature, with the intention of devoting it to public uses,

may teach a useful lesson, not only to those in the humbler ranks of life, but perhaps to some on whom fortune has bestowed goods suffi- cient to enable them to be generous without sacrifice.

Many other notable gifts have been received by this library.

The succession of librarians for the Public is as fol- lows :

J. D. Caldwell, clerk of the board and ex officio libra- rian, 1855-9; N. P. Poor, 1859-65; Louis Freeman, 1866-9; William F. Poole, 1869-73; Thomas Vickers, 1874-9; Chester W. Merrill, 1880.

A large force is employed in the library-at the close of 1880 one librarian, one first and one second assistant ; twenty four day assistants, including two in the librarian's office and five in the catalogue department; fourteen evening assistants; nine Sunday assistants ; two employees in the engineer department, six janitors, and one police- man; fifty-five different persons filling fifty-nine places, four of them duplicating their work.

THE HISTORICAL LIBRARY

has been noticed, and its history incidentally given in an account of the Historical and Philosophical society of Ohio. It has about seven thousand five hundred volumes and thirty thousand pamphlets, mostly of an historical character, and occupies rooms in the fourth story of the College building.

A GERMAN LIBRARY.

A German Catholic School and Reading society was organized September 25, 1842, in connection with the churches of that nationality and faith in the city. It built up a moderate library, which became mostly dis- persed, and a new organization was formed April 4, 1859, called the St. Charles de Borromeo Reading society. This was also broken up after a time, and the books fell to the St. Mary's Catholic church (German), on Thirteenth and Clay streets. November 4, 1877, the name was again changed to the St. Mary's Library association, by which it is now known. The books are in charge of the members of the different societies of St. Mary's congre- gation. The active reading members number forty ; passive members, twelve hundred; volumes in the libra- ry, two thousand five hundred. Mr. Henry Petker is librarian. Both the German and English languages are well represented on its shelves.

PRIVATE LIBRARIES.

We extract the following note from Mr. King's inval- uable little Pocket-book of Cincinnati :

There are numerous valable private libraries, many of which are rich in specialties. Some of the noteworthy private libraries are those of A. T. Goshorn, most of which was presented to him by the citizens of Philadelphia, in recognition of his services as director-general of the Exposition in 1876, the room being exquisitely fitted up by a committee sent here for the purpose; Robert Clarke, containing bibliography and literary history, science, and rare and mimerons works in Scottish his- tory and poctry; Henry Probasco, a costly collection of ancient, rare, and exquisitely bound books, well arranged, classified, and catalogued; Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., rich in theological works; E. T. Car- son, having probably the most complete Masonic collection in the world, besides a fine Shaksperian collection; J. B. Stallo, a large library, with a specialty of philosophical works; Stanley Matthews, abounding in law, scientific, and theological works; George Mclaughlin, contain- ing standard historical works, and a great variety of books on art, as

264

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

well as many curious books; M. F. Force, a fine collection of books re- lating to American Indians; T. D. Lincoln, one of the most extensive and useful collection of law-books in the world.

CHAPTER XXVIII. LITERATURE.

THE Queen City has done worthy deeds in the field of letters, as well as in more material realms. Her men of intellect and scholarship have not only won their way in the professions and at mercantile and manufacturing em- ployments, but have left enduring memorials illustrating many and important walks of literature. The books by Cincinnati authors would fill a large library. The story of the rise, development, and present state of literature in Cincinnati would itself easily fill a volume. We shall in this chapter merely attempt an outline of its begin- nings, with some notices of the authors and works of the various periods of the city's history, particularly those less familiar to readers and inquirers of the pres- ent generation.

THE DRAKES.

The pioneer in Cincinnati literature was probably Dr. Daniel Drake, who came in 1800, a boy of fifteen, and early began literary labors, though he did not publish anything of importance until ten years after his arrival. when the Notices concerning Cincinnati appeared. It is a little book, but deserves special mention as the first of an honorable line of publications illustrating the city in almost every decade of its existence, and as being alto- gether of local manufacture, in authorship, printing, and binding. Dr. Drake exhibited in this much ability to observe carefully and scientifically, and to arrange and record the results of his observations. He followed it five years later by his Natural and Statistical View, or Picture of Cincinnati and the Miami Country, a work of similar character, but larger and fuller, and now more easily accessible, the Notices having become exceedingly rare, only three copies, it is said, being known to book- collectors. Dr. Drake's professional and public life soon became too busy to allow him much time for literature, but he was more or less a writer during the rest of his life, which was prolonged until 1852. In 1842 a small work of his on Northern Lakes and Southern Invalids was published; he prepared in part a popular treatise on physiology, and published several pamphlets or modest books of addresses, lectures, and other public efforts, among them a very interesting collection of discourses before the Cincinnati Medical Library association, deliv- ered only a few months before his death. His great work, however, to which he worthily gave many years of minute investigation and well-directed literary toil, is the Systematic Treatise on the Diseases of the Interior Val- ley of North America-a work which at once attracted marked and wide attention from the medical profession, and is still held in repute. After Dr. Drake's death a

collection was made of letters written by him in his latter years to his children, describing Pioneer Life in Kentucky, and published under that title as No. 6 of the Ohio Val- ley Historical Series. He was an enthusiastic Cincin- natian, and his services to the city through a long life were invaluable.

Benjamin Drake was a younger brother of Dr. Drake and a lawyer by profession, but with a strong bent toward literature. In conjunction with his brother-in-law, the late Edward D. Mansfield, while both were still young men, he prepared and published a work representing Cincinnati in 1826, which, besides securing a large local and some more distant circulation, had the honor to be re-published bodily in London the same year, as an appen- dix to a book of travels and prospectus of a real estate speculation on the Kentucky shore, by a wealthy English- man named Bullock. He later prepared a comprehen- sive work on the Agriculture and Products of the West- ern States, an entertaining little volume of Tales of the Queen City, and Lives of the celebrated Indian chiefs Tecumseh, the Prophet, and Black Hawk. He also wrote much for the Western Monthly Magazine, the Southern Literary Messenger, and other periodicals of the earlier day of magazine literature in this country. He seems to have had a respectable place among the literati of his time, though he has not had much perma- nent fame.

Charles D. Drake, son of Dr. Drake and late United States senator from Missouri, was for a time (1830-4) among the rising young authors of the Queen City. He was a midshipman in the United States navy for about · three years, when he resigned to study law in Cincinnati, where he was admitted to the bar in May, 1833. While a student, and for some time thereafter, he wrote much in prose and poetry for the city papers; but in 1834 removed to St. Louis, and wrote but little after getting into full practice. A series of papers on the Legal Rela- tions of Husband and Wife, published in the Cincinnati Mirror in 1836, and Drake on Attachment, an authority well known to the legal fraternity, are, however, from his pen. He also edited the volume of his father's reminis- cential letters before published, and prefaced it with an admirable biographical sketch of the famous doctor.

EDWARD D. MANSFIELD, LL. D.,

who came to Cincinnati in the fifth year of the century and of his own life, was a quite prolific author. When but twenty-five years old he, in union with Mr. Benjamin Drake, also a young man of the period, prepared and published 'the valuable little work entitled Cincinnati in 1826. One of the first books on the science of govern- ment and the Federal constitution, prepared for use in American schools, if not the very first one, was Mans- field's Political Grammar, 1835, which is still in use under another name. Other books of his are a Treatise on Constitutional Law, 1835; Legal Rights of Women, 1845; Life of General Scott, 1846; American Educa- tion, 1850; Memoirs of Daniel Drake, 1855; and Per- sonal Memoirs 1803-48, 1879. He was author of some strong and intelligent reports as State commissioner of .

265

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

statistics, and many addresses of his were published in pamphlet form. He was an editor for some time, and continued his correspondence for the Cincinnati Gazette almost to the day of his death. In 1839 he conducted for a single year an excellent literary periodical called the Monthly Chronicle, the patronage of which, however, did not encourage him to continue it. His death occur- red at his farm "Yamoyden"-named from a famous poem which he . greatly admired-near Morrow, Warren county, October 27, 1880.

JUDGE BURNET.

The name of Jacob Burnet, as our readers are well aware by this time, is among the foremost names of the early time in Cincinnati. He made a famne as a local historian and speaker scarcely less than his perhaps wider though not more enduring renown as a legislator and jurist. Fortunately for the writer of Cincinnati's annals at this day, a number of her pioneer citizens took a cor- dial interest in recording and publishing the memoirs and statistics of several decades. One of the most important of these issues was Judge Burnet's Letters relating to the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory, contained in a series addressed to J. Delafield, jr., during the years 1837-8, afterwards reconstructed and published in better form by Derby, Bradley & Company, under the auspices of the Historical and Philosophical society, in 1847, as "Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Ter- ritory," which makes a portly octavo of five hundred pages. Thomson's Bibliography well says of it:

We know nothing which illustrates more forcibly the rapid growth of the vast region northwest of the Ohio river, than the contents of this volume. The work is in reality an autobiographical sketch of the author, accompanied by a statement of such facts and incidents relat- ing to the early settlement of the Northwestern Territory as were within his recollection, and might be considered worth preserving. . . His book, with some few exceptions, is considered accurate, and is quoted as authority in more modern productions.

Judge Burnet was also the author of the annual ad- dress delivered before the Cincinnati Astronomical soci- ety, June 3, 1844, which comprises an account of the early settlement of the State; a speech in the National Whig convention of 1839, including a sketch of the ca- reer of General Harrison; and an article of some value in the Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1848, on Cincin- nati in 1800, accompanied by a picture of the town at that time. He also wrote the Historical Preface to Mr. David Henry Shaffer's Cincinnati, Covington, Newport, and Fulton Directory for 1839-40, in which he supplies some rare information concerning the founding of Lo- santiville.

MR. FLINT.

The Rev. Timothy Flint, at first a visitor here for some months early in the century, and then a permanent resi- dent, made a striking figure among the literary men of his time. His volume of Recollections of the Missis- sippi Valley, his book on the Indian Wars of the West, and other works, are still read with interest. Mrs. Trol- lope seems to have been an especial admirer of Mr. Flint, and thus wrote of him in her book on the Domestic Man- ners of the Americans:

The most agreeable acquaintance I made in Cincinnati, and indeed

one of the most talented men I ever met, was Mr. Flint, the author of several extremely clever volumes, and the editor of the Western Monthly Review [Magazine]. His conversational powers are of the highest order ; he is the only person I remember to have known with first-rate powers of satire, and even of sarcasm, whose kindness of nature and of manner remained perfectly uninjured. In some of his critical notices there is a strength and keenness second to nothing of the kind I have ever read. He is a warm patriot, and so true-hearted an American that we could not always be of the same opinion on all the subjects we discussed ; but whether it were the force and brilliancy of his language, his genuine and manly sincerity of feeling, or his bland and gentleman- like manner that beguiled me, I knew not ; but certainly he is the only American I ever listened to whose unqualified praise of his country did not appear to me somewhat overstrained and ridiculous.

THE CISTS.

Mr. Charles Cist rather furnished material for history than wrote or compiled history himself. He was em- ployed to take, or to assist in taking, several censuses of the city; and thus, as well as by his own disposition to inquire into local statistics-as the enumeration of houses and their increase year by year-and his habits as a jour- nalist, he was remarkably well prepared for the publica- tions which he put forth at intervals of about ten years- Cincinnati in 1841, Cincinnati in 1851, and Cincinnati in 1859. For their statistical and historical matter, and the indications given of the states of things here at the sev- eral periods treated, these neat volumes, though not ab- solutely accurate at all points, are invaluable; and we acknowledge deep and frequent indebtedness to them in the preparation of this work. Mr. Cist was also editor of a local newspaper, the Western General Advertiser, for some time in the forties, and from its columns he com- piled two volumes of the Cincinnati Miscellany, or An- tiquities of the West, closely printed in two octavo volumes, which form an invaluable thesaurus of Cincin- nati antiquities and statistics. Many of the most useful facts, copies of old documents, and other materials of this History, have been available to us through the in- dustry of Mr. Cist. In the literary legacy he left to pos- terity, this gentleman probably builded better than he knew.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 71

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666